Altered Fate
by CommChatter
Summary: Details of the Empire's new superweapon, capable of destroying a planet, send the Skywalkers and company back into the thick of the action, and Mara Jade continues to question her role in the Rebellion and as a former Emperor's Hand. Sequel to Change of Destiny.


Thank you all for you patience! Enjoy chapter one of Altered Fate!

_~Dramatis Personae~_

Aaliyah Vao; Rebel, Jedi Apprentice (Twi'lek female)

Ahsoka Tano; Jedi Master, Rebel Leader (Togruta female)

Anakin Skywalker; Jedi Master, Rebel General (Human male)

Ardeth Vao, Jedi Knight, Rebel Infiltration Specialist (Twi'lek male)

Grace Skywalker; Jedi Apprentice (Human female)

Jinn Skywalker; Jedi Knight, Rebel pilot (Human male)

Leia Skywalker; Jedi Knight, Rebel Intelligence Agent (Human female)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Knight, Rebel pilot (Human male)

Mara Jade; Jedi, Rebel Intelligence Agent (Human female)

Mirana Kenyon; Rebel transport pilot/smuggler (Twi'lek female)

Obi-Wan Kenobi; Jedi Master, Rebel General (Human male)

Padmé Amidala Skywalker; Rebel Leader (Human female)

Raoul Tano; Rebel pilot, Jedi Knight (Togruta male)

Terue Vao; Rebel pilot (Twi'lek male)

Artoo-Detoo, astromech droid

Stark; astromech droid

C-3PO, protocol droid

_~Onderon, 0.5 BBY~_

The Rebel prisoner didn't seem nearly as concerned as he should have been. Most Rebels, when being taken to an Imperial detention center, would fight or at least try to resist. This Twi'lek, who had been picked up in a restricted area outside of Onderon's Imperial base, walked between his stormtrooper escorts, watching everything and everyone.

Captain Whitney opened the last door to the main cell block and gestured the Twi'lek and his captors through. Shutting and sealing the door behind him, the captain moved to take point and led the group half-way down the cell block before he opened the door to one of the small holding cells.

"Not where you wanted to end up, is it Rebel?" a young officer, fresh out of Cardia, sneered at the Twi'lek.

The Twi'lek offered them a sardonic smile. "Actually," he said, "this is just where I want to be." and leapt straight up into the air, executing a tight backflip and bringing his hands, secured behind his back by binders, around his legs and in front of his body.

Spinning, the Twi'lek sent one of the stormtroopers staggering back with a sharp kick to the armor's breastplate. Whirling again, the alien lifted his hands in front of his face. The blaster bolt that was meant for the back of his head hit the chain that linked the Twi'lek's wrists together, freeing them. He made a grasping motion with one hand and an unseen force ripped the blaster out of a surprised stormtrooper's hands.

Two shots dropped the stormtrooper and younger officer. Turning again, and swinging the rifle like a bat, the second stormtrooper went down with a crack of plasteel armor being hit with massive force. Within the span of three seconds, three of the Empire's finest had been taken down.

Whitney stood there, frozen, blaster pistol leveled at the Twi'lek's chest.

The blue alien frowned at him, and the fingers of its left hand twitched. "You should sleep, captain."

Inexplicably, Whitney felt his eyelids get heavy. Dimly, he heard his blaster pistol clatter to the ground. A dull pain radiated up his knees, and he realized that he had fallen, though he didn't remember losing his balance. His vision was graying.

The order came again. "Sleep."

And Captain Whitney did.

STAR WARS

The Imperial Captain hit the floor with a dull thud, and Ardeth Vao stepped over the man's prone, snoring form to reach the cell his target was held in.

The door's control panel gave a negative beep when Ardeth attempted to open it, and he sighed. "They always have to be difficult." he grumbled, getting a hold on the door's locking mechanism with the Force and giving it a light push into the unlocked position. The door obligingly slid back into its housing in the wall.

Ardeth stepped forward. "Senator Bonteri?"

The Human man slumped against the far wall shifted into a more upright position. He was in his mid-thirties, with longish brown hair and brown eyes. One side of his fair skinned face was covered in an ugly purple bruise, and his right eye was swollen shut.

"Who're you?" Lux Bonteri, the former senator of Onderon asked, voice rough- from either disuse or screaming, Ardeth didn't want to know.

"I need you to come with me, sir. Some old friends from the Senate want to talk to you."

The older man staggered to his feet. "Let's not keep them waiting, then." Ardeth grinned, a flash of white teeth, and gestured for Bonteri to lead the way out of his cell.

The Imperial base on Onderon was set up like many of the other bases that Ardeth had infiltrated. The detention center where Lux Bonteri- Onderon's former senator until he had been forced out of office for his conflicting views- was imprisoned was set up like a wheel, with the central control room in the middle, and cell blocks themselves arranged around it like the spokes of an old fashioned bicycle wheel. Each cell block was individually locked, and could only be opened by authorized personnel.

The captain that Ardeth had rendered unconscious had opened the door on the way in, which was why the alarms hadn't gone off yet. As soon as those doors were opened, all hell would break loose, and Ardeth would have to get the senator out in the middle of a firefight.

Not that he hadn't done it before. Lately it seemed that Ardeth was seeing the inside of a terrifying number of Imperial detention centers.

Overhead, a ventilation duct opened, and a second Twi'lek dropped from the ceiling. She was petite, with startling blue eyes and the palest skin Ardeth had ever seen in another of his species.

"Whoever designed this place clearly didn't think it all the way through." Aaliyah Vao, Ardeth's little sister and Jedi trainee said, straightening up from her crouch and offering Ardeth his lightsaber. "It's a straight shot from where I came in to here. It's like they want us to use the ventilation shafts around here."

"Or they never considered the possibility of a person using the ventilation shafts to break in to a prison." Bonteri said, completely unfazed by the appearance of a second Rebel agent.

Aaliyah snorted and adjusted her utility belt. "Probably." she pulled an encrypted comlink from her belt. "Chance, this is Ground Team. We have the target."

A tinny voice responded. "_Copy, Ground Team. Stand by for extraction."_

"Ready?" Ardeth asked, gesturing up, towards the shaft that Aaliyah had emerged from. Aaliyah nodded and leapt back up, disappearing into the shaft. "Senator." Ardeth knelt on one knee and laced his fingers, creating a makeshift step for Bonteri.

"It's been a long time since I crawled around in ventilation shafts." The older human commented, stepping into Ardeth's hand and hauling himself up with surprising strength. Ardeth stood and sprang upward, disappearing into the shaft. The metal grate cover shot up off the floor and back into place, screws tightening immediately. All that was left to show that the two Jedi were there was the dead and unconscious stormtroopers.

STAR WARS

"_We're out."_ Aaliyah's voice came through the comlink.

"That's our cue." Mirana Kenyon said. "Let's get her ready, Stark. When the Imps they're gone, they won't be happy."

Stark, Mirana's red and gold astromech, beeped a reply and extended one of his arms into the navicomputer's data ports.

The old YT-1100, a freighter of Corellian design that would have been new about fifty years before the start of the Clone War, _Second Chance_, rumbled to life, flattening the grass and vegetation directly under the engines. The ramp lowered a moment later, and Ardeth, Aaliyah, and Senator Bonteri hurried up.

_Second Chance_ slipped into space, and the Imperials on Onderon's base didn't know about Lux Bonteri's escape until Captain Whitney woke up an hour later.

STAR WARS

_~Imperial Academy at Cardia, 0.5 BBY~_

"Damn it, Farstrider! How did you do that?" Cadet Cliegg Lars demanded, glaring at his fellow cadet, Jake Farstrider.

Farstrider just grinned and raked the pot of debris into a pile and tapped the cards in front of him. "Idiot's Array."

There was a chorus of grumbling around the table. Jake picked up a ration bar and raised an eyebrow at Derek Klivian. "Ration bar, Hobbie?"

Hobbie shrugged. "Had to get rid of it somehow."

The table erupted in laughter, and Jake rolled his eyes and glanced at the chrono on the wall.

"Ten minutes before lights out, guys. I'm gonna hit the showers." Jake gathered the winner's pot- ration bars, various types of candy and even a few outdated datapads- into various pockets of his cargo pants before leaving the Cadets' lounge. A wave of catcalls followed him out.

In the bunkroom, a drab gray room lined with two dozen bunk beds, Jake deposited his winnings in his trunk, then climbed onto his bed, the top bunk in the back corner, and pulled out his datapad.

Flopping back on his bed, Jake started to compose a letter to his mother. It detailed his day, new friends, and what he had been learning. At the end, he signed it and sent it off over the Holonet. The message would bounce around half the known galaxy and various space stations before it would reach its destination. Jake sighed and leaned back on his pillow. Another uneventful day at the Academy, and Jake Farstrider, a rebel agent, was glad for it.

STAR WARS

_~Rebel Base, undisclosed location; 0.5 BBY_~

The missile lock alarm in Luke Skywalker's X-wing chimed.

"She's good," Luke commented to Artoo, and then pushed his X-wing into a vertical dive. The missile lock on them stayed, and Luke went evasive, diving into the asteroid field to dart through and around the asteroids. His opponent broke off pursuit and looped around, waiting for him to reemerge.

She forgot about Luke's wingman. With a loud war whoop, Raoul Tano pounced and hammered the other X-wing's shields. A fourth X-wing, highlighted red on his HUD, descended from the position it had been holding over the fight, and forced Raoul to take evasive action.

Luke brought his X-wing back around and out of the asteroids, and shattered a small asteroid next to his adversary with his X-wing's quad guns. The other X-wing darted sideways to avoid any follow up attacks, and Luke roared after her, matching her evasives with counters of his own.

A yelped "Oh, shavit!" distracted Luke momentarily, and Raoul's X-wing, highlighted green on Luke's HUD, blinked out, destroyed by the fourth X-wing.

Luke grumbled a curse. "Artoo, when I tell you, cut the engines." The astromech squealed in protest, but at Luke's shouted "Now!", he did as asked.

Luke fired the thrusters and stomped hard on his X-wing's rudder pedals, spinning his craft 180 degrees, to face the oncoming X-wing. He didn't wait for a target lock as his X-wing spun, he just fired all four of his lasers. The other X-wing, its pilot not expecting the attack, exploded. Luke's craft continued its spin and Artoo throttled the engines back up. They roared off after the last X-wing.

It went evasive, and Luke matched it. The other pilot cut her engines in an attempt to get Luke to overshoot her X-wing, but he matched her and fired his lasers, blowing one of the s-foils off the other fighter and sending it into a spin. Another volley, and the crippled fighter exploded.

The screen in Luke's flight simulator went dark and the top opened.

"Great flying, Skywalker!" Raoul Tano said, grinning, meeting Luke as he climbed out of the simulator.

"Thanks." Luke said, pulling off his flight helmet, and shaking his sweaty hair out of his face.

The other two simulators cycled open and a blue Twi'lek and a blonde teenage Human girl emerged.

"I almost had you!" Grace Skywalker, Luke's younger sister complained.

"He gets points for creativity." The Twi'lek, Terue Vao, agreed. "Did you learn that from Antilles?"

Luke shrugged. "Sort of. Smugglers always develop interesting methods of escape."

"Okay!" Raoul clapped his hands together. "Now that we've established that Luke's the best pilot-"  
>"Which we already knew." Terue interjected.<p>

"-can we get some food? The mess hall opened an hour ago, and I'm _starving."_

Grace ignored the Togruta and Twi'lek- who had started shoving each other- and stared harder at her brother.

"I almost had you." She repeated.

"But you didn't get me." Luke replied.

"I'm a better pilot than most of Red Squadron!" Grace said. "Why won't you let me fly missions?"

"Because I can't." Luke said. "And even if I did let you join, Mom would have both our hides like _that."_ he snapped his fingers for emphasis.

Grace scowled and mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Luke asked.

"She probably wouldn't even notice." Grace repeated. "They're both so busy, I don't think they would notice if I dyed my hair pink."

Luke blew out a sigh and ran a hand through his sweat matted hair.

It was true, what Grace had said about their parents. Both Anakin and Padmé had become so absorbed with the running of the Alliance, that they had forgotten- unintentionally, Luke was sure- about their youngest child.

Luke, Leia and Jinn had thrived on the freedom that their parents' preoccupation granted them, but at the same time, Grace floundered. Her older siblings did their best to fill the void, but, as teenagers themselves, they could only do so much. And now, with Jinn and Leia off on separate missions themselves, Luke was increasingly aware of how isolated Grace had become. He did his best to keep from forgetting her and often dragged her along to Red Squadron's Sabacc and game tournaments, and Red Squad, bless them, had adopted Grace as something of a mascot and baby sister.

"You're too young." Luke said, bracing for the inevitable explosion.

Grace didn't disappoint. "I'm the same age Jinn was when you were kidnapped! That's not fair and you know it!"

"Do you think we wanted to get kidnapped?" Luke asked dryly. "Command isn't taking any recruits under seventeen standard years, anyway." Holding up a hand to forestall Grace's protest, he said, "If you can out fly me _consistently_ in the sims, I will personally take your case to Command and fight for you. Until then, you'll have to stick to the sims. Deal?" Luke held his right hand out, palm up. Mentally making a note to fly in the simulators as much as he could.

Grace didn't hesitate. Grinning widely, she seized Luke's hand and pumped it enthusiastically. "Deal."

"Good." Luke clapped her on the shoulder. "Let's get some food before Terue and Raoul eat it all."

Satisfied that he'd kept Grace from the front lines for the foreseeable future, Luke raced Grace to the mess hall.

STAR WARS

_~Royal Botanical Gardens, Aldera City, Alderaan. 0.5BBY~_

"Anything?" Mara Jade asked.

Leia Skywalker shook her head. "Nothing."

The two were winding their way through Alderaan's Royal Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful place, several square kilometers of plants in the middle of Aleraan's capital city, Aldera.

It was the perfect place for them to go- most of Aldera's juvenile populace were there at some point each day, so the two Rebels, disguised as students at Alderaan's university, met there regularly to discuss their 'classes'.

The two had been sent to Alderaan to make contact with Bail and Breha Organa, which they had done almost six months ago. Since then, the duo had been steadily putting out feelers for a sense of the Alderaanians' feelings about the Alliance.

For a peace loving people, some were surprisingly anti-Imperial.

What their real goal was, however, was to infiltrate the Imperial garrison and access the computers there. Needless to say, they weren't having much luck.

"We could always go through the vents," Mara suggested.

"Pull an Aaliyah?" Leia made a face. "I don't think we could get away with it."

Mara turned and shuffled backward down the trail in front of Leia. "Why not?"

"Ground Team got the target. I'm guessing the Imperials are paying more attention to the vents now."

Mara grinned. "As happy as that makes me, it just makes our job harder."

Leia snorted. "Just a little bit."

The girls stopped when they came to a fork in the trail.

"Same time tomorrow?" Mara asked.

"Sure." Leia agreed.

They separated and walked down the separate trails.

STAR WARS

Sequel to Change of Destiny, woot! Chapters will be posted on a (hopefully) monthly basis. finals are next month, so chapter 2 will be posted sometime after December 13th. And next semester promises to be... unpleasant (forensic chemistry and algebra), so updates after January may be slow.


End file.
